Herbart’s Theory of Conscious and Unconscious Ideas

Have you ever wondered why some thoughts stay in your mind… while others disappear, even though they

never really go away? More than two hundred years ago, the German philosopher

Johann Friedrich Herbart tried to answer this exact question. Herbart believed

that the mind is made of ideas. Every sensation, memory, image,

thought, and feeling becomes an idea. And these ideas are not passive—they

are dynamic. They move, interact, and compete with one another.

According to Herbart, ideas behave like forces. When ideas are similar, they attract each

other and can coexist in consciousness. They reinforce one another and stay in the mind.